Drugs, biologics, vaccines, antibiotics and other medical materials (“medicaments”) intended for injection into a subject are commonly supplied in sealed vials from which the medicament must be withdrawn prior to injection and transferred to an injection device. In some cases the medicament is in liquid form, and in other cases it is in a dry or powder form, such as lyophilized form, and must be reconstituted or re-suspended with a liquid diluent before it can be withdrawn from the vial. In this description, “re-suspend” is used in a comprehensive sense to include reconstitute and dilute.
Devices for transferring and/or re-suspending medicaments supplied in vials have been the subject of significant development, as have injection devices for injecting a medicament into a subject. Examples of both are set forth in PCT
International Application No. PCT/US2014/042627, entitled Vial Transfer and Injection Apparatus and Method, which published as PCT Publication No. WO2014204894, on Dec. 24, 2014, and is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. Various embodiments of transfer and mixing or re-suspending devices and injection devices are disclosed in detail therein. The transfer and re-suspending devices shown there employ spring-loaded pistons and cylinders for transferring the medicament and/or diluent and/or re-suspended medicament as between the vial or vials and injection device. While these devices work well, further cost and/or size reduction and/or simplification continue to be desirable.